Three Bombay Poems

Re: Aakar,

Ah yes... Ideal Cafe! Thanks! Its been a while. :)

the happy one #22

``P.S: Anybody remember the name of the Iranian Cafe I`m talking about?``

ya, that`s Ideal Cafe.

regards

aakar patel

t #21:

thanks - i`ll keep that in mind. but why does it change around? do they have a different calender or something - the way we have a lunar one?

Re: Harish:

I agree with some others here who have compared this to an image/ experience/ sense collage more than a Dali. To me Dali was more deliberately symbolic. The constant organic metamorphic references to ants & grasshoppers & bats & cows & lapdogs reminded me of the animated sequences from The Wall & Natural Born Killers. All in all, like Aakar said, it was grotesquely overdone & cool at the same time!

To answer your question about whether your piece reminded one of Bombay I have to say that you did a great job. In fact I think that the dark perspective you provide is more akin to that of an outsider`s. As somebody who does not belong to the city but has been there enough, I would have to say that the dark underbelly of the city is omni-pervasive. Only Mumbaikars swear by the city.... visitors tend to find it quite gruesome and your poems paint a gruesome picture.

Ever since I read Midnight`s Children I have been fascinated by the tetra pods.... a walk on the marine drive parapet to that Iranian Cafe under the over-bridge and munch on chilly cheese toast with Hayward`s 1000! That`s a memory that came flashing back!

Thanks.

P.S: Anybody remember the name of the Iranian Cafe I`m talking about?

Lubna #12:

[hey, what`s with those `?` in my previous interact?]
---I suspect when you transfer the comments the program changed (‘) into (?)

[thank you for the info on Durga Puja - very interesting, didn`t know about it. i am now in a better position to wish some of my Bengali friends on this occasion.]
---The SweetOne informs me “... I will make a small correction at your post. This year the starts on 3 October...it is not fixed on particular days... it comes on different days ranging from 3rd week of September to 3 week of October...This year it is on October 3....”

So wait till October 3 before wishing your Bengali friends.

love,

temporal

RE: Scout # 10

Oh! That was helpful, THANKS A LOT:)

temporal #14

``...is Karanjia still alive? Is Blitz?``

r k karanjia is alive (his brother bk is a mid-day columnist). met rkk in `97, was a little out of it because of his age which is a pity.

mr a and vijay mallya leased out blitz for five years from the karanjias two years ago. it`s a total rag and mercifully hasn`t been brought out in the last six weeks for lack of funds. i`m preparing its obit for mid-day -- what a legendary paper it was!

``either... (a) Ansari is a hands-off boss or (b) he {aakar}is lazy.``

guilty as charged.

tariq ansari is an exceptionally cool boss, god bless him, and gives me way more rope than he should or i deserve.

regards

aakar patel

You are one of the better writers here.

That said, I found the poems strained - especially the first one. The images were weird (perhaps that

was the idea) and the metaphores did not really succeed (IMHO). Too many difficult words. All in all I came away with no fresh perspective on Bombay.

Harish:

The address you were looking for is www.monsoonmag.com. Her name is Shikha Malavia. A labour of love for her: not very regular though.

I mentioned another address in a post to aakar below. Check it out as well.

You have not been to Karachi. It is probably closest to Bombay in many ways. It was once a part of the Bombay Presidency in RajTimes.

If you want a feel for it, visit these sites:

http://www.angelfire.com/il/sheher
http://home.uchicago.edu/

temporal:

Thank you for the kind words. And plead guilty for the unforgivable typos. Hope previous record will bail me out back into your mailing list.

scout

thank you for your kind words.

veeresh

sorry for the oversight...

rehanhasanansari

feel good to hear that from you...gone are the days of poetry as editorials...

sac

glad your patience was rewarded. The first poem has had similar responses earlier too...

Lubna

Thank you for your encouragement to post more. Maybe I`ll manage the courage. This itself was after much wrangling...and temporal`s encouragement.

aakar

before you jump in to chide me about crowding the reponses...please to note..i have clubbed them in one...and devoted one exclusively to you.

cheers

PS: temporal can you send me the url of a SA literary site you had sent me earlier. thanks in advance.

aakar patel #14

[i`m not sure. i do know that writing that makes people think is not popular for obvious reasons. mr akbar started a poetry page in the asian age, and that didn`t last too long for lack of response (apart from the bengalis).]

Arvind Passey invited me to send in contributions to Poetry Splash at http://www.poetrysplash.com
You may check it out.

Ofcourse I seldom respond to un-addressed, unsolicited mail ;)

Which means I have to offer you an apology and explanation for your kind invite to write for Mid-day. Apologise: am lazy ;)

Hey, is Karanjia still alive? Is Blitz?

[ya, india probably has the worst stylesheets on earth. mix of cliche and corn.]

You want me to mention the nightmare scenario from the other side and start a war?

[btw, mid-day`s desk is way too young to have a formatted stylesheet in place.]

Helpful Hint: Gentle reader, and those not familiar with what is being said here and those who scan the newspapers daily --- you must learn the Art of Reading between the Lines. What aakar is saying here is that (a) Ansari is a hands-off boss or (b) he {aakar}is lazy.

regards,

temporal

I spent a several hours at night in Bombay a couple of years ago. Trouble is it was at the airport lounge between connecting flights, and from your poems I see that I missed out on all the weird stuff going on outside in Bombay.

dear harish

i cannot remember the last time everybody praised a writer on chowk in such unison.

``I would love to know if you smelled...if not saw...our city in the threesome.``

of course, i did -- but made no mention because your description is so obviously excellent.

``Deskwise...does it explain why so little poetry gets published in... Mumbai or... bharat.``

i`m not sure. i do know that writing that makes people think is not popular for obvious reasons. mr akbar started a poetry page in the asian age, and that didn`t last too long for lack of response (apart from the bengalis).

``I think too many indian desks do suffer from a chronic...disease called a Uniform Civil Code of style. Wonder if you ever thought about it.``

ya, india probably has the worst stylesheets on earth. mix of cliche and corn.

and yes, india today HAS become totally unreadable, though i refer to the stories/story ideas as much as the writing itself. they have the most dreary covers imaginable.

btw, mid-day`s desk is way too young to have a formatted stylesheet in place.

regards

aakar patel

ps: chowk editors, i would like to protest against this unilateral americanisation of writers` spelling. it`s totally unaesthetic.

hey, what`s with those `?` in my previous interact?

anyway.....

t:

thank you for the info on Durga Puja - very interesting, didn`t know about it. i am now in a better position to wish some of my Bengali friends on this occasion.

Harish:

Thank you so much for the poems - really enjoyed them. You said the FIRST one was an ?attempt to do in verse what Salvadore Dali did in painting?. To me there was surrealism in all three of them. Maybe not as intense as in the first poem, but definitely there.

`Bombay: A Paranoic Critical Landscape`:

I wish I were familiar with Bombay so that the references made more sense but nevertheless the images you used were very pungently vivid (does that make sense? don?t know how else to describe the impression I was left with). I thought the verse ?At the Worli seaface...... to substitute their two-inch complexes? was amazing. Again, I wish I were more familiar with the Bombay landscape. I liked the way you ended the poem on such a buoyant note after all that heavy stuff. The poem seemed somewhat erratic, disjointed in its content to me. As if you were that fruit fly and the poem was a collection of snapshots from your mind of different areas of Bombay. Oh, of course, Dali...

`Colored bats`:

This one I liked the most. The imagery was very original. It had a smoother flow. More controlled compared to the first one.

`Street Sepulchre`:

I found this one to be the most poignant one compared to the others. One single image was left etched in my mind:

?Street death has a peculiar habit

Of squeezing out grace

From ugly worn torn bodies.?

How come you don`t contribute more poetry? Think you should.

-Lubna

To me a form of expression different from the usual textual narrative is meaningful only if it conveys some thought or message more forcefully or effectively. Initially my reaction was the same as aakar`s - too much verbiage and stylistic pretension without much substance but then a little more reflection and second reading and I kind of enjoyed it. For lack of more explicit parallels(after all I am a prude at least on Chowk!!) the experience was akin to drinking some really strong capuccino the third time round. Refreshingly different from the usual mushy(decaffeinated) stuff that passes off for poetry on Chowk.

Harish: Thanks for an enjoyable read.

later

-sac